"I can say that Martin wanted to join Tottenham. You see that he has some problems at City and that's why he decided to look elsewhere and Spurs made an offer for him. But it's not the end of the world. He has one year of his contract left and we'll see after that."

Petrov joined City two years ago and made a bright start to last season, but after sustaining a serious knee injury playing for Bulgaria last October, was out of the side until the closing weeks of the season and now faces a major battle to regain his place in City's starting line-up.